Taming the Tongue and Finding Refuge in God

Seeking God's Help to Tame Our Tongues

1. The passage from the Holy Gospel that we just heard should have deeply alarmed us, if we have faith. Those without faith remain unalarmed. Because they aren't alarmed, they continue in a false sense of security, not knowing how to distinguish between times when security is appropriate and times when fear is necessary. Let those who are living this temporary life be appropriately afraid, so that in the life without end, they may have security. Therefore, we should be alarmed.

For who wouldn't fear Him who speaks the truth and says, "Whoever says to his brother, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:22)? Yet "no man can tame the tongue" (James 3:8). We tame wild beasts, yet we don't tame our tongues. We tame the lion, yet we don't bridle our own speech. We tame everything else, yet we don't tame ourselves. We tame what we fear, yet what we should fear in order to tame ourselves, we don't fear. But how can this be? The statement is true and comes from an oracle of truth: "No man can tame the tongue."

2. What shall we do then, my brothers? I see that I'm speaking to a large assembly, yet since we are one in Christ, let's take counsel as if in private. No stranger hears us; we are all one, united in Christ. What shall we do? "Whoever says to his brother, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire. But no man can tame the tongue." Will all people go to hell fire? God forbid!

"Lord, You have been our refuge from generation to generation" (Psalm 90:1). Your wrath is just; You send no one to hell unjustly. "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7). Let us understand, beloved, that if no one can tame the tongue, we must turn to God to tame it for us. If you wish to tame it yourself, you cannot, because you are human. "No man can tame the tongue."

Consider a similar principle with the animals we tame. The horse doesn't tame itself. The camel doesn't tame itself. The elephant doesn't tame itself. The viper doesn't tame itself. The lion doesn't tame itself. And likewise, we cannot tame ourselves. For the horse, ox, camel, elephant, lion, and viper to be tamed, human intervention is necessary. Therefore, let us seek God's intervention so that we may be tamed.

3. Therefore, "O Lord, You have become our refuge" (Psalm 90:1). To You we turn, and with Your help, things will go well for us. For things go badly when we're left to ourselves. Because we abandoned You, You have left us to ourselves. Let us be found in You, for in ourselves we were lost. "Lord, You have become our refuge."

Why then, brothers, should we doubt that the Lord will make us gentle if we surrender ourselves to be tamed by Him? You have tamed the lion, which you didn't create; shall God not tame you, whom He did create? From where did you get the power to tame such savage beasts? Are you their equal in physical strength? By what power have you been able to tame these great beasts?

Even those we call beasts of burden are by nature wild. But because we've only known them under human control and power, do you think they were born tame? Consider the beasts that are unquestionably savage by nature. "The lion roars—who will not fear?" (Amos 3:8). And yet, how are you stronger than the lion? Not in bodily strength, but in the interior reasoning of the mind.

You are stronger than the lion in the aspect that makes you God's image. What! Shall God's image tame a wild beast, and shall not God tame His own image?

4. In Him is our hope; let us submit to Him and seek His mercy. In Him let us place our hope, and until we are fully tamed—that is, brought to perfection—let us bear with our Tamer. For often our Tamer must use His whip. If you bring out the whip to tame your beasts, shall not God do the same to tame His beasts (which we are), whom He will transform from beasts into His children?

You tame your horse, but what will you give that horse when it begins to carry you gently, bear your discipline, obey your commands, and become your faithful, useful beast? How do you repay it? You won't even bury it when it dies but will cast it out to be torn apart by birds of prey.

In contrast, when God has tamed you, He reserves for you an inheritance, which is God Himself. Though you die for a little while, He will raise you to life again. He will restore your body completely, down to the last hair, and will place you with the angels forever. There you will no longer need His taming hand but will enjoy only His boundless mercy. For "God will be all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28). There will be no unhappiness to discipline us, only happiness to nourish us.

Our God will be our Shepherd; our God will be our Cup; our God will be our Glory; our God will be our Wealth. Whatever variety of things you seek here, He alone will be all these things to you.

5. For this hope, we endure the taming process. Should we then consider our Tamer unbearable? For this hope we are being tamed—should we complain against our benevolent Tamer if He happens to use the whip? You've heard the Apostle's encouragement: "If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?" (Hebrews 12:7-9).

What could your earthly father do for you when he corrected and disciplined you, when he brought out the rod and beat you? Could he make you live forever? What he couldn't do for himself, how could he do for you? For some small sum of money that he gathered through labor and toil, he disciplined you with the whip so that the fruit of his labor, when left to you, wouldn't be squandered by your wasteful living.

Yes, he beats his son, fearing that his efforts will be wasted, since he left you what he could neither keep here nor take with him. He didn't leave you anything here that could remain his; he departed so that you might come after him.

But your God, your Redeemer, your Tamer, your Discipliner, your Father—He trains you for what purpose? So that you may receive an inheritance when you won't have to carry your father to his grave, but will have your Father Himself as your inheritance. You are being trained for this hope, and yet you complain? If some misfortune befalls you, do you perhaps blaspheme? Where will you go to escape His Spirit?

For now, He leaves you alone and doesn't whip you, or He abandons you in your blasphemy. Will you not experience His judgment? Isn't it better for Him to whip you and receive you, than to spare you and abandon you?

6. Let us say then to the Lord our God, "Lord, You have become our refuge from generation to generation" (Psalm 90:1). In the first and second generations, You have been our refuge. You were our refuge so that we might be born, when before we did not exist. You were our refuge so that we might be born again, when we were evil. You were a refuge to nourish those who forsook You. You are a refuge to raise up and guide Your children.

"You have become our refuge." We will not turn away from You—when You have delivered us from all our evils and filled us with Your own good things. You give good things now. You deal gently with us so that we don't grow weary on the journey. You correct, discipline, strike, and guide us so that we don't stray from the path.

Whether You deal gently with us so we don't grow weary on the path, or You chasten us so we don't wander from the path, "You have become our refuge, O Lord."